One year before the World Cup, FIFA is shunned by sponsors

AT THE World Football Museum in Zurich, run by FIFA, football’s global governing body, visitors take their photo with the World Cup trophy, try their hand at match commentary and gawk at artefacts ranging from the original handwritten set of the rules of the game to the yellow card famously shown to Paul Gascoigne, a lachrymose English footballer, in 1990. Those wanting a glimpse of the luxurious bedsheets that were used to shield FIFA officials as they were hustled out of a ritzy Swiss hotel in 2015 having been arrested on corruption charges may feel cheated—they are not on display.

If FIFA’s shrine to itself ignores this squalid period of its history, its balance-sheet bears the traces. FIFA lost $369m in 2016, triple the losses of the year before, and forecasts a loss of $489m in 2017. Reserves, which have been above $1bn since 2008, are predicted to fall to $605m next year.

The latest loss is partly because of higher development funding for member...Continue reading

AT THE World Football Museum in Zurich, run by FIFA, football’s global governing body, visitors take their photo with the World Cup trophy, try their hand at match commentary and gawk at artefacts ranging from the original handwritten set of the rules of the game to the yellow card famously shown to Paul Gascoigne, a lachrymose English footballer, in 1990. Those wanting a glimpse of the luxurious bedsheets that were used to shield FIFA officials as they were hustled out of a ritzy Swiss hotel in 2015 having been arrested on corruption charges may feel cheated—they are not on display.

If FIFA’s shrine to itself ignores this squalid period of its history, its balance-sheet bears the traces. FIFA lost $369m in 2016, triple the losses of the year before, and forecasts a loss of $489m in 2017. Reserves, which have been above $1bn since 2008, are predicted to fall to $605m next year.

The latest loss is partly because of higher development funding for member...Continue reading